Century Arms C39V2

[LeeBison]

I just picked up my C39V2 after a full two nights of shocking research. Before i buy a rifle I always do my homework and heard all the bad about Century. But I heard it specifically about the RAS47... nothing about the C39. I then proceeded to watch reviews from some respected youtubers who said the C39V2 was GTG. So I figured I dodged the the RAS47 bullet...

Apparently I jumped the gun...

After reading about the soft cast metal internals, the first thing I did when I got home was take hi-res pictures of the rife, and every single part to keep track of the "probable" excessive wear my gun will see. Now this may not be much, but by just operating the action with snap caps I've already started to see the finish wear off around the charging handle as well as the bolt carrier face.

Could this just be the surfaces breaking themselves in? Maybe. Am I being a little paranoid? Absolutely. Could it be the telltale signs of excessive wear? Maybe as well.

I won't know for sure until I take it to the range, but when I do I will document it, and post my findings. That way any potential future owners looking to buy this specific rifle may get some more insight into this potential issue.

Buying the c39v2 was a terrible mistake that I have ever made in my whole entire life. The rifle irons was so heavily canted that couldn't even zero at a target 18M away... it shot far the the left and after about 100-300 rounds the right lug was penned and my dove tail had mushrooming. To make things worse the tail of the bolt is starting to mushroom as well. I sent my rifle back for service (canted sights) and also mentions to them about the mushrooming that I have and they fixed the irons (shoot straight giving me about a 1.5 MOA at 25m zeroing for 100M. Regarding the deformation and mushrooming they said that is normal on all ak variants. Although I knew it was bs, I went online and found that you can replace the ****ty soft metal bolt and bolt carrier with a 1960 milled polish ak bolt carrier and Polish akm bolt. Works perfectly fine. However the right lug on the receiver continues to wear.


The money and time I spent getting parts and for century to fix the problem it wasn't even worth it, I should have just spent a few extra hundreds getting an arsenal. I can take pictures of the penning right lug when I get home from work.

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[dwinters14]

There's a considerable amount of surface wear for just racking the action in my opinion. I say this because I was scraping out the surface material shavings with my finger. Right now it looks to be all cosmetic as all the important parts are still together. So I'm not jumping to conclusions, not until I can get at least 500 rounds down range and see what happens.

[ar15barrels]

The problem with century guns is marked right on the receiver in the first line of engraving:

[wireless]

I did, they said the C39v2 was GTG. Passed the tests, I think this was after 3k.

The rifle is very well put together and finished well, I don't think it's junk. I think, as usual, there is always a story that comes with a Century gun. They just do not have a good rep, and it continues. Seems like the consensus us that the RAS is junk, with some exceptions. The C39v2 seems like the consensus is the opposite, most GTG with some exceptions.

If there is any metal deformation or metal shavings I'll report it right away.

AKOU review

lol....

[Gregchico]

Buying the c39v2 was a terrible mistake that I have ever made in my whole entire life.

You don't get out much huh?


I've got 2200-2400 rounds through my C39v2 since December 2015. The gun runs great, very accurate.

After seeing Rob Ski's testing, I too started taking photos of my wear to keep track of what was going on. These photos shown are from about 1500-ish rounds, but it has not gotten any worse. I have tested with a no go gauge just because and there was no issue. I have not noticed any issues inside the receiver.




While it looks bad, the marks are not deep enoiugh to catch your finger nail when scrapped against.

[highpower]

dwinters14; your pictures are too small, I can't quite see them from the other side of my house.

gregchico, what do the locking lugs on the receiver look like?

[LeeBison]

You don't get out much huh?


I've got 2200-2400 rounds through my C39v2 since December 2015. The gun runs great, very accurate.

After seeing Rob Ski's testing, I too started taking photos of my wear to keep track of what was going on. These photos shown are from about 1500-ish rounds, but it has not gotten any worse. I have tested with a no go gauge just because and there was no issue. I have not noticed any issues inside the receiver.




While it looks bad, the marks are not deep enoiugh to catch your finger nail when scrapped against.

Not really especially when you have work and a family to take care of. That's good that your rifle works out for you. Mine was a dud. My rifle shouldn't have carrier and bolt tail deformation / mushrooming especially with such low round counts and me not going out much...

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[Discogodfather]

lol....

Maybe you could elaborate. Don't worry, they don't charge by the keystroke here.

[dwinters14]

dwinters14; your pictures are too small, I can't quite see them from the other side of my house.

I dunno how to resize

[Gregchico]

Here are some of the requested photos at 2200+ rounds...

Tail. There is some deformation, but nothing I'm worried about.


Chamber area. No, I have not cleaned it at all..

[rockstar]

seems you got a good one. enjoy!

[Zombie13]

Check out my thread on the AK files regarding my C39V2.

http://www.akfiles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=260470

In summary, it's junk. Century outsources the bolts and carriers which has lead to bad heat treating. Some bolts are too soft, some too brittle. When I had my V2, I was only able to shoot it during one session before it had to be returned to Century to replace the soft bolt.

It took Century 6 weeks to get my rifle back to me. They had replaced the bolt and fired 30 test rounds. When I got it back, the bolt was severely chipped from the 30 rounds fired at the factory. I refused delivery and had it sent back to Century (Century gave approval to send it back).

Another 6 weeks went by and Century responded by saying "the gunsmith found no issues with headspacing." Now, my issue was not with current headspacing, but the fact that the bolt was missing a significant amount of metal after only 30rds. The gunsmith finally inspected the bolt after a little back and forth and agreed it was no good. Century then offered to replace the rifle entirely.

Another 6 weeks go by before the replacement rifle was received. Luckily my FFL gave me a full refund at that point and I was able to buy another AR.

EDIT: I do want to add, that in the time I did get to shoot it, it performed flawlessly. The action was smooth, trigger was crisp, and the barrel was incredibly accurate. I am happy I don't have to deal with the headache, but I will miss the C39V2.

[dwinters14]

I took it out to the range today and for the most part the bolt and carrier are fine... except beneath the back of the bolt on the carrier, a lip has formed as well as on the right side locking lug. The gun itself is fine with no internal wear on the body, as well as everywhere else besides those two points.

But... I only fired 180 rounds.

Sorry for the pic size, I don't know how to resize.

[Discogodfather]

Looks pretty good to me, How was the accuracy?

If you can shoot a gun without cleaning for 2200 rounds and it still goes its a Kalashnikov.

I cut down some of the rough edges on my bolt with a fine file and this seemed to help, no more little shavings. It just was not machined well and needed better deburing from the manufacturer.

[wireless]

Which "rough edges" are you talking about?